Secret of Giving: A Christmas Collection
The Secret of Giving: A Christmas Collection is American country music singer Reba McEntire's twenty-third studio album, and second Christmas album, the follow-up to her 1987 album Merry Christmas to You. Released on September 21, 1999, the album features mostly new, original holiday tunes with only a couple of traditional favorites. The children featured on "The Angels Sang" are actually the class of her son Shelby who was in the third grade at the time. The album peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard country chart and is currently certified Gold by the RIAA. It has sold 940,000 copies as of December 2013 in the US, and over 1 million copies worldwide.
The album was followed by a CBS made-for-television movie also called . The film starred McEntire and Thomas Ian Griffith, and aired on Thanksgiving night in 1999. It featured songs from the album as its soundtrack.
Personnel
Vocals- Joe Chemay – backing vocals
- Liana Manis – backing vocals
- Reba McEntire – lead vocals
- Jimmy Nichols – backing vocals
- Eddie Bayers – drums
- Richard "Spady" Brannan – bass guitar
- Terry Crisp – steel guitar
- Eric Darken – percussion
- Larry Franklin – fiddle
- Paul Franklin – steel guitar
- Jeff King – electric guitar
- Paul Leim – drums
- B. James Lowry – acoustic guitar
- Brent Mason – electric guitar
- Reba McEntire – arrangements
- Jerry McPherson – electric guitar
- Jimmy Nichols – keyboards
- Will Smith – autoharp
- Biff Watson – acoustic guitar
- Glenn Worf – bass guitar, upright bass
- Derek Bason – engineer, digital editing
- Kevin Beamish – engineer, mixing
- Narvel Blackstock – management
- Alex Chan – assistant engineer
- Karen Cronin – design
- Ron Davis – photography
- Daniel Kresco – engineer, assistant engineer, mix assistant
- David Malloy – producer
- Steve Marcantonio – engineer
- Scott McCutcheon – assistant engineer
- Reba McEntire – producer
- Carole Ann Mobley – production coordinator
- Patrick Murphy – assistant engineer
- Cindy Owen – art direction
- Denny Purcell – mastering
- J. R. Rodriguez – engineer, assistant engineer
- Sandi Spika – hairstylist, wardrobe